MARCH 2018 - AudioFile
David Linski’s voice conjures the heat and dust of the Australian Outback of the 1800s. Howarth’s audiobook is a bleak tale in which childhood innocence isn’t lost—it’s obliterated. Two teenage boys, 14-year-old Tommy and 16-year-old Billy, are forced to seek revenge after their family is slaughtered. Sullivan, the landowner to whom the family is indebted, takes responsibility for the children; however, Sullivan’s intentions, and the law enforcement with whom he’s involved, have ulterior motives in their mission of retribution. Linski’s stoic, tense narration complements the tone of this dark but compelling Western, which is both a gripping thriller and a powerful story of masculinity, race, and identity. S.P.C. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine
Jess Walters
Just try putting this book down. An original, breathless, compelling debut.
Laird Hunt
Everywhere alive with vivid evocations of a landscape as punishing as it is beautiful and vibrant characters who would be just as at home in Blood Meridian or Butcher’s Crossing, Only Killers and Thieves compels and convinces from the start. This is a thrilling book and Paul Howarth a writer of tremendous talent.
Sunday Times (UK)
An outstanding debut…a powerful novel of crimes in a bleak landscape.
John Boyne
A gripping and vivid novel, Paul Howarth brings early Queensland to life so well that you can practically smell the horses. Paul Howarth is a remarkable new talent.
Shelf Awareness
Visceral…The imagery the author uses is both brutal and beautiful…The effects of Tommy’s actions haunt him long after the deeds are done, just as this story lingers in the mind long after the book is closed.
Tim Winton
Only Killers and Thieves is a historical novel, but the savagery it depicts is still a matter to be reckoned with in contemporary Australia where the traumas of genocide continue to resonate from generation to generation. This is an impressive debut.
Newark Star-Ledger-NJ.com
A must-read for anyone who craves pictorially descriptive writing, story-telling with palpable tension and characters so finely drawn they leap off the pages…Howarth has captured the trappings of America’s Wild West, only here the white vigilantes’ victims are Australia’s aboriginal natives. Otherwise the parallels are striking, from ethnic hatred, violent attacks and torture to the bloodthirstiness of ruthless hunters as they move through an unrelenting, sun-parched landscape bent on extermination. Against this stark and gory backdrop Howarth crafts nuanced, insightful alterations in the boys’ characters…No matter how driven you are (and you will be), resist the temptation to read Only Killers and Thieves straight through. Howarth’s writing deserves thoughtful savoring.
Paulette Jiles
A gripping novel about conflict in the Australian outback at the turn of the century; beautifully done.
Irish Examiner
Hugely impressive…reminiscent of Peter Carey.
The Irish Times
Howarth’s stunning debut has shades of Cormac McCarthy and Patrick deWitt...a book that grips from the outset and entertains even as it educates us about an appalling part of Australia’s history. Epic in scope, Only Killers and Thieves is a study in morality in a land where white vigilantism has never seemed more depraved.
Booklist
Rich in character and period atmosphere, this effective blend of family saga and historical mystery will please fans of Jeffrey Archer and Wilbur Smith.
New York Review of Books
Only Killers and Thieves is a powerful debut. Paul Howarth brings early Australia to life, bloody warts and all, in an epic tale of murder, revenge, and colonial oppression, with very little room for redemption. The story and his words will stay with you, long after you have finished the book.
BookPage
Howarth manages to infuse the old tropes with a depth of emotion and moral complication that will stay with readers long after closing the book.
Washington Post
Prose like that arrives direct from Cormac McCarthy’s dusty Southwest…Howarth’s spotlights how arbitrary frontier justice can be. But he also asks: How much less arbitrary is a purportedly civilized society?
The Missourian
They’re hard to find, books that grab you by the throat and won’t let go — addictive novels that make your heart race. Only Killers and Thieves tops that category…There’s much to relish in this page turner, descriptive writing, a plot that wrings you out, and characters you grow to hate, evil and racism personified…This literary, hard-hitter brings to life a time of mistrust and violence in Australia when whites tried to wipe out indigenous Australians. Only Killers and Thieves is brilliant but brutal.
Willy Vlautin
I couldn’t put Only Killers and Thieves down. It does what great Westerns do, it drops you inside the ugliness and chaos of Australian frontier life, it educates and horrifies, but also it entertains. Howarth’s debut is a powerhouse page turner.”
Emma Viskic
Only Killers and Thieves is a story of brooding danger, family bonds, and the choices two brothers make in becoming men. A sparse and lyrical Western that manages to illuminate one of Australia’s darkest periods.”
Washington Post
Prose like that arrives direct from Cormac McCarthy’s dusty Southwest…Howarth’s spotlights how arbitrary frontier justice can be. But he also asks: How much less arbitrary is a purportedly civilized society?
Booklist
Rich in character and period atmosphere, this effective blend of family saga and historical mystery will please fans of Jeffrey Archer and Wilbur Smith.
Sunday Times
Outstanding debut...a powerful novel.
MARCH 2018 - AudioFile
David Linski’s voice conjures the heat and dust of the Australian Outback of the 1800s. Howarth’s audiobook is a bleak tale in which childhood innocence isn’t lost—it’s obliterated. Two teenage boys, 14-year-old Tommy and 16-year-old Billy, are forced to seek revenge after their family is slaughtered. Sullivan, the landowner to whom the family is indebted, takes responsibility for the children; however, Sullivan’s intentions, and the law enforcement with whom he’s involved, have ulterior motives in their mission of retribution. Linski’s stoic, tense narration complements the tone of this dark but compelling Western, which is both a gripping thriller and a powerful story of masculinity, race, and identity. S.P.C. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine
